tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post3880053376751246601..comments2019-05-28T17:31:20.974-04:00Comments on Lost in the Movies: AvatarJoel Bockohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-89550980953305051752010-02-21T13:31:11.571-05:002010-02-21T13:31:11.571-05:00A fair and amazingly perceptive essay, that really...A fair and amazingly perceptive essay, that really leaves so much writing on this film in the dust, including my own. Yet, rather than accentuating a number of the early points I did make, i will say that I bought into this vision, and if the issues that you broach here like Cameron&#39;s &quot;tin ear for dialogue&quot; really bothered me all that much, I wouldn&#39;t have been so ravished by the film. it&#39;s a spectacular piece of entertainment, and it&#39;s atrip I certainly look forward to taking again. Under such circumstances, I take the issues and discard them. That the way I play this game.Sam Julianonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-30321918440910311912010-02-21T15:02:34.595-05:002010-02-21T15:02:34.595-05:00Fair enough, Sam. Out of curiosity, though, has yo...Fair enough, Sam. Out of curiosity, though, has your opinion of Titanic changed over the years or do you still like/dislike that one as much as you did in &#39;97?<br><br>By the way, any readers who want to check out Sam&#39;s excellent, enthusiastic review can click on the &quot;Wonders in the Dark&quot; link embedded in the text and scroll up from Bob&#39;s comment.MovieMan0283http://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-50292046756483185462010-02-21T16:44:33.084-05:002010-02-21T16:44:33.084-05:00Ha Joel! I NEVER, EVER liked TITANIC from the fir...Ha Joel! I NEVER, EVER liked TITANIC from the first time I saw it. I hated it then, and I still hate it now.<br><br>Thanks for that link mention Joel!Sam Julianonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-56058252300902665632010-02-21T22:14:45.968-05:002010-02-21T22:14:45.968-05:00Ha ha, interesting...for some reason I thought you...Ha ha, interesting...for some reason I thought you would say that!MovieMan0283http://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-62917784012770276922010-02-21T23:07:58.606-05:002010-02-21T23:07:58.606-05:00MovieMan,This is an excellent essay summing up the...MovieMan,<br>This is an excellent essay summing up the film after all the hype, admiration and dissent. The hypocrisy aside, I felt the film faltered on a cinematic level itself. None of teh action scenes worked for me. Remember the boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark? Cameron disrupts the sense of spatial unity, with his incessant cutting, which is very important for action scenes. No immersive experience for me I&#39;m afraid.Just Another Film Buffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880550053788464732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-80110890155557254022010-02-22T00:16:27.412-05:002010-02-22T00:16:27.412-05:00The cutting was a problem for me too. It seemed sk...The cutting was a problem for me too. It seemed skittish - why not swoop and soar with the dragons or sustain one of these supposedly &quot;spiritual&quot; moments so that we can be seduced by Pandora as well? But I&#39;ll admit the 3D novelty got ahold of me: it was a new experience, and I value it for that. The question is, when other movies take this and run with it, will Avatar be left like The Jazz Singer or Birth of a Nation (or, as I suspect, somethin in betweeen?).MovieMan0283http://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-34800912051577734352010-02-22T03:09:33.503-05:002010-02-22T03:09:33.503-05:00MovieMan, this is a very well written and riveting...MovieMan, this is a very well written and riveting insight. A few points, if I may...<br><br>&quot;Avatar is a very conventional action film, in both narrative and style. It follows a three-act structure complete with love story and streamlined villainy&quot;<br><br>I&#39;ve been thinking recently that Avatar, in its good guys/ bad guys dichotomy, its colour, its dialogue, its music, has the feel of a children&#39;s film. Maybe it could have done with more teeth.<br><br>&quot;...whirling camera, and fast cuts rather than long &quot;takes&quot; which would provide a deeper immersion into this imagined universe.&quot;<br><br>For me longer takes don&#39;t necessarily equate with deeper immersion. Antonioni, Kiarostami, Tarr they&#39;ve all had me quickly reaching for the off button. A compelling world to get lost in is what you need. I think it&#39;s only apt that the cutting is sometimes quick, like we turn our heads and open our eyes to try and take everything in.<br><br>I think Cameron wants to convey grand SCALE and individual IMMERSION at the same time.<br><br>&quot;As bedazzled as we are, we seldom forget we are watching a movie.&quot;<br><br>I didn&#39;t actually feel the same way, MovieMan. I seldom forgot I was watching a PRESENTATION but that is different from the feeling that is one watching a fiction/illusion. I was sufficiently immersed.<br><br>&quot;...his affectionate gaze remains patronizing.&quot;<br><br>Characters and people described as &#39;pure&#39; are often depicted as lacking complexity, being more natural - more childlike, more animalic. It&#39;s as if intelligence and psychological nuance leads to corruption.<br><br>&quot;As for the first point, the best condemnation of Cameron&#39;s blame-the-soldiers approach to Iraq allegory&quot;<br><br>I don&#39;t know if Cameron really wants to &#39;blame the soldiers&#39; (the good v bad soldiers/corporations is an age old trope that needn&#39;t be seen as statement) but of course it did annoy me that we never got to know what the soldiers and humans were really fighting for. I would have liked to have known more about the &#39;dying planet&#39;. Also, the Na&#39;avi are mighty hypocritical aren&#39;t they? Don&#39;t kill a dog, but if humanity is on its last legs, they send us packing (which is fine) but then they turn their backs on our suffering.<br><br>Jake is a goofy do-gooder who throws away his humanity and puts on his &#39;Na&#39;aviness&#39; like a new pair of jeans<br><br>This is an issue.Stephenhttp://checkingonmysausages.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-71130481727012515472010-02-22T03:19:46.445-05:002010-02-22T03:19:46.445-05:00Actually, I started to feel sorry for/ back the so...Actually, I started to feel sorry for/ back the soldiers. I laughed at the (I paraphrase) &#39;you can&#39;t throw a stick around here without it landing on some sacred fern&#39; bit. Everybody becomes so damned precious and its obvious the soldiers aren&#39;t given a fair crack of the whip to explain their desperation - beyond MONEY which is NOT a synonym for greed. Money keeps us alive in the same way the tree of souls keeps them spiritually alive.<br><br>&quot;Even when Jake is inhabiting a Na&#39;vi body, his avatar seems like a motion-captured physical performance, while the true Na&#39;vi move with a sinuous grace which transcends the &quot;uncanny valley effect&quot;&quot;<br><br>I agree. Neytiri is a staggering creation. I think the others look too cartoony and plastic. <br><br>That&#39;s another problem I have with Avatar - the jerky sea-sick camera moves when following flying creatures or spaceships or...This is a problem in all CGI scenes. Very artificial it is too.<br><br>A very well written piece, MovieMan and good luck with the site.<br><br>Despite my comments I really enjoyed the film. I think we are hardest on the films we like because any blemishes can become grand disappointments. I would put it in the top 5 films of the year, with Antichrist clear at the top.<br><br>I don&#39;t know if you&#39;ve read it or want to read it but I have a review of Avatar here:<br><br>http://checkingonmysausages.blogspot.com/2009/12/<br>avatar-2009-james-cameron-in.html#commentsStephenhttp://checkingonmysausages.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-52835717681591952392010-02-22T07:14:56.952-05:002010-02-22T07:14:56.952-05:00Stephen, thanks. It&#39;s not so much the use of c...Stephen, thanks. It&#39;s not so much the use of cuts period so much as the use where they&#39;re not needed. Often Cameron will cut between two views of the same thing when one view is all that&#39;s necessary. To me, this was distracting. Editing can be wonderful when it&#39;s rhythmic. I didn&#39;t feel that here.<br><br>Great points on the soldiers/the Na&#39;vi/Jake&#39;s identity crisis. Also, it reminded me of a quote from an Italian partisan in the 40s: &quot;I hated Mussolini above all because he made me take up arms against my country.&quot; We never get that sense from Jake - or how about personal anguish in his or ESPECIALLY Michelle Rodriguez&#39; part, taking up arms against those who have been their friends and compatriots? The cause may be just but wouldn&#39;t there be a bit of anguish, of discomfort there?<br><br>Not that I&#39;m expecting Avatar to be &quot;realistic&quot; but that was a bit unconvincing.<br><br>I was definitely immersed but something in me resisted complete capitulation.MovieMan0283http://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-31902840896021162442010-03-19T13:46:18.524-04:002010-03-19T13:46:18.524-04:00I’m not sure what to say here since you seem to lo...I’m not sure what to say here since you seem to look at Avatar with more piercing eyes than mine. It’s in my top 5 of the year (I prefer it to <i>The Hurt Locker</i>) and I didn’t see it in a normal 2D theatre so I can’t say that I was caught up in the hype or anything. I don’t know. It is conventional, but I don’t think it’s pedestrian. Of course, I think <i>Titanic</i> is Cameron’s greater achievement (a film I continue to love despite the obvious hatred). Admittedly <i>Avatar</i>’s screenplay is not the best but a film doesn’t need a perfect screenplay to be a great movie. That’s why prizes for Picture and Screenplay are not synonymous. Your article is thought provoking, but I can’t really answer your questions. I don’t see Avatar as being anti whatever but I don’t go to films for messages.Andrew: Encore Entertainmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01104647944747041277noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-62941731611015439112010-03-19T16:24:51.893-04:002010-03-19T16:24:51.893-04:00Andrew, you &amp; Sam see pretty much eye-to-eye o...Andrew, you &amp; Sam see pretty much eye-to-eye on this one then; he named it his #1 of the year, and felt the screenplay was irrelevant to the appeal of the spectacle. I liked it but felt the need to take it to task for some of its hypocrisy. Plus, I&#39;m still ambivalent about the heavy hand CGI has laid over the industry. No - strike that, I&#39;m not ambivalent, I&#39;m downright hostile, as a general rule. Where I AM ambivalent is in cases like this, where the computer animation is used so well. Yet even here there&#39;s something slick and fake about it and it doesn&#39;t resonate with me as deeply as something more handcrafted.MovieMan0283http://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-3709624641595418632010-03-19T19:26:44.688-04:002010-03-19T19:26:44.688-04:00Hee. That should read I did see it in 2D. That typ...Hee. That should read I <b>did</b> see it in 2D. That typo sort of changes my entire comment. I don&#39;t know why I liked it, I don&#39;t usually go for this sort of stuff (not being condescending). I mean my The English Patient and Gosford Park are two of my favourite movies, and I&#39;m not IN LOVE with Cameron&#39;s early sci fi work (as good as it is). I just sort of fell for this.Andrew: Encore Entertainmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01104647944747041277noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7610074516299275060.post-33780056440086710062010-03-21T10:57:05.880-04:002010-03-21T10:57:05.880-04:00I saw it in 3D, and would probably have liked it l...I saw it in 3D, and would probably have liked it less in 2D - the spectacle was definitely part of the appeal to me. I think Terminator and Aliens are probably superior to anything Cameron&#39;s done since - maybe Terminator 2 is up there too, though I haven&#39;t seen it in a while.MovieMan0283http://www.blogger.com/profile/11238338958380683893noreply@blogger.com